Moments from Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavilion, completed in 2001, is the first American building by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, and its signature feature, a moveable, wing-like brise-soleil sunscreen that spans the width of the building, actually opens and closes twice a day, weather permitting, in a slow mechanical flourish that draws crowds specifically to watch it move. The building sits directly on the shore of Lake Michigan, and the wings, when open, echo the lake's own horizon and the gulls that circle above it, a piece of architecture explicitly designed to respond to its waterfront setting rather than sit apart from it.

Time your visit around the wing opening or closing if you can, museum staff typically post the daily schedule online in advance, and it remains the single most photographed moment most visitors experience here, arguably outshining much of the collection inside. The museum's permanent holdings are broad and genuinely strong, particularly in American decorative arts and folk art, but don't let the building overshadow the galleries entirely, it's worth budgeting real time indoors as well as the few minutes you'll spend outside watching Calatrava's wings move.